THEGAYUK

Tag: Liberal Democrats

All the latest breaking news on the UK political party, the Liberal Democrats. Browse The THEGAYUK’s complete collection of features and commentary on the Liberal Democrats.

  • MP Layla Moran comes out as pansexual

    MP Layla Moran comes out as pansexual

    Liberal Democrat MP becomes the first MP to identify as pansexual.

    “Last year I fell in love with a wonderful woman” is how Lib Dem MP Layla Moran chose to describe her decision to come out as pansexual on Twitter.

    The MP for Oxford West and Abingdon wrote on Twitter that she was “happy” and that the beginning of a new decade was the perfect time to start on a new path.

    She published a picture of her and her partner. The post was met with a mainly positive reaction, receiving over 16,000 likes and nearly 900 retweets over a few hours.

    Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton and Hove congratulated Layla, saying, “Great photo! Really happy for you, congratulations x”

    What does pansexuality mean?

    Pansexuality, might not be on your radar as much as homosexuality or bisexuality, but its all-inclusive nature has got people falling in love with the sexual and romantic orientation that is pansexuality – which is, essentially hearts, not parts – you fall in love and lust with the heart of someone, not just their biological sex or gender expression.

  • Nearly one-quarter of the UK’s gay community are undecided on who to vote for

    Nearly one-quarter of the UK’s gay community are undecided on who to vote for

    10 Downing Street
    Who will win the race to 10 Downing Street – will Boris keep his premiership or can Corbyn or even Swinson knock him from the top spot?
    CREDIT: TheGayUK/Jake Hook

    With just days before our 3rd General Election in 4 years just around the corner, THEGAYUK.com undertook a flash poll to find out whether its readers had made a decision on who they were going to vote on the 12th December.

    THEGAYUK.com asked its readers a binary question of whether they were decided or undecided on who to vote for.

    In total, nearly 400 people took part in the survey, at the time of publication.

    One quarter are still undecided

    In a previous poll, about which way they were planning to vote, THEGAYUK’s readership said that Labour, led by Jeremy Corbyn, was their first choice with 38 per cent of the vote but was closely followed by the Liberal Democrats, headed by Jo Swinson.

    The Conservatives, with the incumbent Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, managed to grab hold of 15 per cent of the vote, while “other” which would you include parties such as the Greens, UKIP, The Independent Group For Change, Brexit Party, Plaid Cymru.

    However, there is just under one-quarter of people who are still undecided on who to vote for.

    At the time of publication, 23 per cent they were undecided, seventy-seven said they had made up their minds.

    One commentator, Jay, summed up their feelings by saying, “You look at the conservatives how many lies they have told and with the leader they have got with Boris Johnson is embarrassing. And you have Labour with the likes of Diane Abbott and a leader like Jeremy Corbyn. You have the Lib Dems who look like competition winners. I don’t know who to vote for.”

  • New survey indicates how the UK’s gay community might vote in the General Election 2019

    New survey indicates how the UK’s gay community might vote in the General Election 2019

    10 Downing Street
    Who will win the race to 10 Downing Street – will Boris keep his premiership or can Corbyn or even Swinson knock him from the top spot?
    CREDIT: TheGayUK/Jake Hook

    With our 3rd General Election in 4 years just around the corner, THEGAYUK.com undertook a flash poll to understand where its readers were thinking about putting their “X” when they visit the voting booth in December.

    THEGAYUK.com asked its readers which way they planned to vote with the choices being Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem or “Other” which could include Nationalist parties like the SNP or single-issue parties like the Brexit Party.

    There were only four options permitted – this the maximum number of choices Twitter allows its users for polls.

    In total, nearly 360 people took part in the survey, which lasted just over two days via a Twitter poll.

    Labour comes out on top – but only just

    Overall Labour, led by Jeremy Corbyn, came out on top with 38 per cent of the vote but was closely followed by the Liberal Democrats, headed by Jo Swinson. The Conservatives, with the incumbent Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, managed to grab hold of 15 per cent of the vote, while “other” which would you include parties such as the Greens, UKIP, The Independent Group For Change, Brexit Party, Plaid Cymru

    How will you vote?

    While the survey is in no way scientific or wholly representational of the LGBT+ community in the UK, it does give some insights into which way THEGAYUK’s Twitter followers are planning to vote come December 12th. Discuss politics and more in our politics forum.

  • Former MP Mark Oaten: I can finally admit to myself, I’m Gay

    The former Liberal Democrat MP Mark Oaten has finally admitted to himself for the first time that he is gay – 13 years after a sex scandal destroyed his political career.

    Mark Oaten was exposed by the now defunct Sunday newspaper News Of The World in 2006 after it emerged he’d been having group encounters with male sex workers. At the time he was a married father, and a potential candidate for the Liberal Democrat leadership.

    Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Emma Barnett, he said he is now living with a male partner.

    Embed from Getty Images

    He also revealed he has recently given up his Liberal Democrat membership, calling the party’s situation “a tragedy” and saying leader Vince Cable had “failed”.

    Embed from Getty Images

    And he says “I can’t believe I’m saying this”, but he won’t rule out becoming an MP again in the future.

    On his sexuality, Mr Oaten said: “I’m gay now and I’m comfortable with being gay and I’m clear about my sexuality.

    “I haven’t actually said it until now in an interview. It’s something which is difficult for me to say. It still feels difficult for me to say, but increasingly I’m comfortable and happy about that, and feel in a comfortable place to say that to you today. But it’s been a long journey to get me to that point. I clearly had sexual doubts earlier on in my life, but I was very, very happily married and really, really enjoyed being a dad and married as well.

    “It’s a real contradiction. You know I think there are a lot of people out there who have this contradiction….And for people listening to this, if they are in that situation I would say, address it sooner rather than later if you can, because I’m so much happier now.”

    Mr Oaten said his family and friends had been very supportive.

    “It’s something my friends have known about now, my girls know about, and my mum – those key people – but it’s only been in the last year, year-and-a-half. I’ve got a partner, we live together. I have a group of great gay friends. I can be who I am now. I just wish I’d done it earlier.”

    Mr Oaten said the working environment at Westminster which drove him to seek out sex workers was “a horrid culture, and I believe it’s still the same.”

    He said: “You are in an environment where you can buy drink really cheap, you are in an environment where you are away from home and your family, and you are in this kind of bubble where you are able to get away with anything you want. You are conscious and aware of colleagues having affairs. It is a climate where people call you ‘Sir’. I would almost describe Westminster as this seedy, bullying men’s club.”

    On the current state of the Liberal Democrat party, Mr Oaten said it’s time for Vince Cable to step aside: “He’s failed and the party’s failed. I think Jo Swinson is good and great. I think frankly, Vince, it’s time for you to step down and let somebody new come through.

    “But my problem is with the structure of the political parties at the moment. I don’t think that Jo or anybody else can revive politics from the establishment. It needs now to be revived from the non-establishment, and post Brexit it’s got to happen. And that excites me, that interests me.”

    When asked by Emma Barnett if he could see himself becoming an MP again, if a new party came along, Mr Oaten said:

    “I honestly can’t believe I’m saying this, because I actually said I would never ever stand for anything again … but I don’t know, I’m not sure… It’s still part of me in the past. I’ve buried it for 10 years. I don’t feel comfortable with what’s going on in politics at the moment. If something and fresh came along in the future, who knows?”

    The full interview with Mark Oaten will broadcast on The Emma Barnett Show on BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday 14 January 2019 from 10am.

  • Vince Cable becomes new leader of the Liberal Democrats

    The new leader of the Liberal Democrats has been announced as Sir Vince Cable after no challengers stepped forward.

    Vince Cable becomes new leader of the Liberal Democrats

    Sir Vince Cable, 74,  has been revealed as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats after Tim Farron stepped down as the leader shortly after the General Election.  Tim Farron faced a lot of criticism during the general election due to his dismal ability to answer questions on the sinfulness of being gay and gay sex. Although the Liberal Democrats managed to increase their number of seats from nine to 12 Farron’s leadership failed to ignite the passion at the ballot box despite record levels of membership for the party.

    Mr Cable is the MP for Twickenham and was the only candidate on the ballot paper for the leadership contest.

    Vince Cable On Gay Rights

    Vince Cable has a good history when it comes to his pro-gay rights voting history and has always voted in the positive – including reducing the age of consent and on the repeal of Section 28. He has never negatively voted on an LGBT+ rights issue.

    However, he has, according to TheyWorkForYou.com been absent from a number of votes. Analysis of his voting history shows that Vince Cable was absent from 12 votes between 1999 and 2014.

    ForeFront of LGBT+ Equality

    Speaking to THEGAYUK the LGBT+ Lib Dem group said that Sir Vince would keep the Liberal Democrats at the “forefront of LGBT+ equality”. They also said they would work with him to work on PrEP availability, transgender rights and the situation in Chechnya.

     

     

     

  • COMMENT | No, Tim Farron wasn’t persecuted for being Christian – he’s just a terrible politician

    Tim Farron has resigned, and he’s martyred himself in the process. Amidst a disappointing election result for the Liberal Democrats (in which they didn’t earn the dividends expected off their hardline opposition to Brexit) and questions about Farron’s ability to control the narrative around him and his party, he is stepping down.

    Farron, though, blames his departure not on any failure of his campaign but because of some imagined persecution. “The consequences of the focus on my faith is that I have found myself torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader,” Farron said upon resignation. “To be a political leader – especially of a progressive, liberal party, in 2017 – and to live as a committed Christian, to hold faithfully to the Bible’s teaching, has felt impossible for me.” The kicker, though, was when he complained he was “the subject of suspicion because of what I believe and who my faith is in,” adding that “we are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal, society.”

    The sheer gall of this man.

    At the start of the general election, I wrote a piece for The Independent defending Tim Farron’s waffling on whether gay sex is a sin. While as a gay Christian I was annoyed he wouldn’t simply say “no” (though he eventually did), I pointed out that “Tim Farron isn’t standing to be Pope,” and that “if his religion stays out of his politics, which it largely does, it shouldn’t matter what he believes in church, only how he votes in the chamber.”

    “This self-pitying, self-indulgent statement from Farron proves not that Britain is some illiberal Christophobic hell, but that Tim Farron is a spineless, whinging loser”.

    I stand by this principle. But Farron wasn’t subjected to extra scrutiny because he is a Christian, nor are Christians persecuted in Britain. This self-pitying, self-indulgent statement from Farron proves not that Britain is some illiberal Christophobic hell, but that Tim Farron is a spineless, whinging loser.

    After spending the first week or two of the campaign dodging the question of whether gay sex is a sin, Farron finally came out and said that no, he doesn’t think it is. It’s reasonable to ask why, if Farron truly doesn’t believe gay sex to be sinful, that it took him so long to simply answer the damn question.

    Farron could have nipped the whole thing in the bud by answering no the first time. He didn’t. He answered “no” only after it became apparent that his campaign was in crisis. At the time I took him at his word, as did many LGBT people, including within his own party. But the persecution complex in his statement makes me wonder whether Farron ever truly believed gay sex wasn’t sinful, or whether he was himself sinning by lying to us all about that.

    Many, many Christians – myself included – do not think gay sex is at all sinful. We don’t need to waffle on about not being theologians to say so. The implication in Farron’s statement that he is being persecuted for his faith, because he wouldn’t answer about gay sex, is that the only way to be a “faithful” Christian is to follow some sexual orthodoxy that is not present in every denomination. Farron therefore insults millions of Christians who don’t subscribe to a medieval notion that same-sex sexual activity is innately sinful.

    That he seems to have lied is the only logical explanation for why he’s so hell-bent on playing the victim now and why he wouldn’t answer the question directly to begin with. Instead, Farron now pretends that he’s the victim of some anti-Christian witch hunt. But this ignores the fact that other politicians have faced scrutiny over how their faith impacted their stance on LGBT rights, too. The most famous example is probably Sayeeda Warsi, whose Muslim faith has been credited with her own spotty record on LGBT equality. In fact, the LGBT community is frequently used to pinkwash Islamophobia by the Christian right who themselves oppose advances in LGBT equality.

    It is insulting to those Muslims who actually face persecution in society to cry wolf here, and Farron should know better. Beyond this, though, it is absurd to insist that there is an anti-Christian prejudice in Britain. The state religion is Christianity, for God’s sake. The head of state is the head of that church. The BBC has a Christian programme – Songs of Praise – on every Sunday. There are Christian radio stations, Christian tv channels, Christian holidays legally celebrated (Christmas, anyone?), Christian names, Christian schools, and even Christian Bale. Hell, a Christian political party that refuses to work on Sunday is set to be the kingmaker for the next government. A country propped up by the DUP is not a Christophobic country.

    Other politicians haven’t had to explain themselves the way Farron has, despite their Christianity, and this is entirely down to him. Tim simply hasn’t handled this issue well. I’ve defended him on this before, because I don’t think he should have to answer for his private faith, but this is entirely a mess of his own creation.

    “People didn’t dislike Tim Farron because he is Christian. They disliked him because he’s a waffling, spineless elf of a man who even as he resigns cannot accept any responsibility for his party’s defeat”

    By refusing to take responsibility for it – and for the Lib Dems’ electoral disappointments – Farron is portraying himself as the victim of some imaginary puscht. It is insulting to the LGBT community, insulting to religious minorities who are persecuted, and mostly, it’s insulting to voters who rejected a frankly untalented, uninspiring politician who misjudged the nation’s political temperature. People didn’t dislike Tim Farron because he is Christian. They disliked him because he’s a waffling, spineless elf of a man who even as he resigns cannot accept any responsibility for his party’s defeat – or that maybe it wasn’t his God, but him, that voters couldn’t stand.

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • Tim Farron steps down as Lib Dem leader

    The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron has stepped down.

    Tim Farron quits the Lib Dem leadership

    First, it was UKIP’s leader, Paul Nuttall, now it’s the turn of the Liberal Democrat’s leader, Tim Farron to bow out of party leadership.

    The leader who was consistently asked about his views on the sinfulness homosexuality during the election campaign said that he was “torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader”.

    During a press conference, Mr Farron said that he recognised that he should have dealt with certain questions that related to his faith “more wisely”.

    During the campaign, Mr Farron was asked numerous times about his thoughts on the sinfulness of homosexuality and whether gay sex was a sin. Although he did manage to answer once on both questions, he found it almost impossible to give a straight answer whenever he was questioned on the subject.

    Mr Farron became the party leader in 2015 after a close battle with Norman Lamb. His leadership was backed by one of the UK’s highest-profile openly gay peers, Brian Paddick, who yesterday also resigned, citing concerns over Tim Farron’s views.

    Possible successors include Sir Vince Cable, Jo Swinson, Sir Ed Davey and Norman Lamb.

    Post-election, the Liberal Democrats did manage to add seats in the latest election, however, it was a far cry from the hoped-for resurgence of the Lib Dems since most of their seats were wiped out following a coalition with the Tories from 2010 to 2015.

     

  • Lib Dem peer resigns over Tim Farron’s views

    Brian Paddick has resigned his post as the Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary citing concerns over Tim Farron’s views.

    Brian Paddick resigns the Lib Dems

    One of the UK’s most powerful LGBT Peers and the Liberal Democrat’s highest profile gay member, Brian Paddick has, today, resigned his position as the Shadow Home Secretary over “concerns” about Tim Farron’s views.

    Taking to Twitter Brian Paddick said,

    “I’ve resigned as LibDems Shadow Home Secretary over concerns about the leader’s views on various issues that were highlighted during GE17.”

    https://twitter.com/brianpaddick/status/874976886069374976

    During the GE2017 campaign, Tim Farron was unable to answer, numerous times, about his beliefs surrounding the sinfulness of homosexuality. Although did say that he didn’t think that homosexuality or gay sex was a sin, he failed to answer further questioning on LBC’s breakfast show.

    Lord Paddick did not go into detail about which of Mr Farron’s views he had taken issue with.

    In 2015, Mr Paddick had been a vocal supporter of Tim Farron’s during and after the announcement of Farron as the new Lib Dem leader, telling THEGAYUK,

    “Tim Farron has come under a lot of criticism from people who either deliberately or simply misread Tim’s position when it came to votes in the House of Commons on equal marriage,

    “He did ask for a change in the timetable to allow more discussion over complex issues around people who have honestly held beliefs who are currently employed as registrars, for example, who would feel very uncomfortable because it conflicts with their faith to conduct an equal marriage ceremony. He felt not enough time had been allowed in the parliamentary time belt to discuss those issues.

    “As the Liberal Democrats’ gayest highest profile member I am absolutely confident that I can vote for Tim Farron and that he is absolutely 100% behind LGBTI rights.”

    The Liberal Democrats did manage to add seats in the latest election, however, it was a far cry from the hoped-for resurgence of the Lib Dems since most of their seats were wiped out following a coalition with the Tories from 2010 to 2015.

  • THE BIG GAY ELECTION | Week in review, we’re in the home stretch!

    With only two days before the nation votes, we again stand in the shadows of tragedy. The terrorist attacks at London Bridge and Borough Market on Saturday have proven another unexpected development, changing the narrative of an already convoluted election. What Theresa May billed as the Brexit election when she announced it back in April has quickly become the security election. Both the Prime Minister and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have faced criticism over their records on terror and security – Mrs May for cuts to policing and intelligence failures on her watch, and Mr Corbyn for his links to the IRA and other terrorist organisations.

    It’s easy to look at what happened over the weekend – and in Manchester last month – and lose sight of other issues as they pale in comparison. But alas, there are stories worth bringing your attention to as we enter the home stretch of election 2017 – which has proven to be gayer than we ever thought possible.

    That could be down to something in the water. That is, at least according to Susan King, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Telford. In a web chat with the Shropshire Star last week, Ms King – a former anti-fluoride campaigner – claimed “there are a lot of feminising hormones getting into the environment and that has to be taken into consideration.” As if that weren’t a peculiar enough statement for a parliamentary candidate to make, Ms King continued by adding that “it’s affecting people’s sexuality basically,” whilst insisting that “people are at liberty to interpret how they want to live themselves.”

    The notion that British water is making people gay has attracted a lot of criticism, not only because many people think it’s borderline homophobic but because it’s also just quite daft. In a way, though, I kind of wish our water were making people gay. Maybe then I could marry Prince Harry.

    Of course, then Caroline Ansell might try to cure us both. Ansell, the incumbent Conservative candidate in Eastbourne, accepted funding for an intern from the homophobic and transphobic Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) charity. According to the Metro, CARE funded a conference on conversion therapy back in 2009. It shouldn’t be so surprising that Ansell would take money from CARE,  as she is also a member of the Kings Church Eastbourne, which the Metro reports is a part of anti-LGBT churches that preach gay people can be “cured.”

    Another church that allegedly believes gay people can be “exorcised” of the demons of same-sex attractions is Jesus House, a fast growing church in London. Last week, Theresa May stopped by to worship with its controversial and anti-gay marriage pastor, Agu Irukwu. Pink News reports that Pastor Irukwu wrote in 2006 that the Sexual Orientation Regulations was “the latest discrimination against Christians” and that it would “force Christians… to accept and even promote the idea that homosexuality is equal to heterosexuality.” (Spoilers: it didn’t.)

    If it seems I’m beating up on the Tories and Liberal Democrats here, it’s because they’ve given me the most fodder over the past several weeks. I’ve been keeping a keen eye out for any interesting gay gaffes, and other than Kezia Dugdale telling people to vote for the Tories (seriously, that’s a really bad electoral strategy, Kezia), Labour has been fairly gaffe-free on issues of equality. The Tories, with their notoriously checkered history on issues of equality, are continuing to experience growing pains as they try to balance their conservative base with their more progressive front bench (and a more enlightened electorate). The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, literally started and ended this campaign talking about gay sex.

    When we wake up on Friday morning we could have the gayest parliament in history. The last parliament already saw a world record number of gay MPs. Yet in a report for Pink News, Professor Andrew Reynolds of The LGBT Representation and Rights Research Initiative at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill predicts that “the gains made by LGBTQ candidates in June 2017 will outweigh any losses.” According to Professor Reynolds, there could be as many as 24 new LGBT MPs elected of the 147 openly LGBT candidates standing this year.

    So all and all, not a bad gay election. Of course, I don’t know who is going to win on Friday (the polls show Labour pulling close, but it’s still likely to be a Tory majority), but I do know that this election has been more of a whirlwind than any in my lifetime. I’m kind of glad it’s almost over, and I live for politics, so I can’t imagine how you must be feeling. Just hang in there and know that no matter who emerges as Prime Minister at the end of the week, THEGAYUK Magazine will be there to bring you all the details.

    [os-widget path=”/thegayuk/who-should-i-vote-for” of=”thegayuk” comments=”false”]

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • Tim Farron once again cannot answer whether being gay is a sin

    Tim Farron has once again refused to answer on whether he thinks being gay is a sin.

    Speaking on Nick Ferrari’s LBC morning show, Tim Farron once again refused to answer whether he thought being gay was a sin.

    A caller, Brian, from Highgate asked the Lib Dem leader whether he thought that homosexuality was a sin to which he answered, “I dealt with that weeks ago.”

    Ferarri asked Farron to remind the listeners what his position was, to which Farron answered, “Do you know what, we’re not going there. My personal faith is my personal faith.”

    When pushed again by Ferrari, Farron answered,

    “…to be honest with you, a person who is a leader of a political party, it’s their job as someone who is passionate about LGBT rights, prove it with your actions, not by your words.

    “My actions, absolutely, are 100% about defending LGBT rights. And as a party, you look what we’ve done, my colleague Lynne Featherstone introduced equal marriage, I’m very proud of that.”

    In April, Farron answered the question in April during an interview with the BBC where he said,

    in a BBC interview this week, again Mr Farron’s opinion was sought on the subject. He replied,

    “I don’t believe that gay sex is a sin.

    “I take the view though, that as a political leader, my job is not to pontificate on theological matters.

    “It seems to me that there is a general election on at the moment, we need to be talking about big issues.”

    The general election will take place on Thursday 8th June 2017.

     

     

     

     

  • THE BIG GAY ELECTION | Week in review, manifestos and more

    After a few sombre days of mourning the victims of the Manchester attack, the Conservative and Labour are back on the campaign trail

    With less than two weeks until the country votes on the 8th of June, you can bet they’re ready to make up for lost time and make their final pitches to the public.

    The biggest political story of the past two weeks is undoubtedly the release of the party manifestos. Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the Conservatives all released their manifestos last week. I blogged about what they pledged to the LGBT community for HuffPost UK, while THEGAYUK’s editor-in-chief, Jake Hook, put together a quick guide for your easy reference.

    Labour and the Lib Dems specifically made pledges to the LGBT community, but the Tories didn’t mention us once. This is, to put it bluntly, unacceptable. Regardless of political position, that one of the major parties—never mind the Prime Minister’s party—would neglect to mention the LGBT community or make any specific pledges to us seems almost unfathomable. It is yet another gaffe in an already controversial Tory manifesto, which has seen the Prime Minister U-turn on her plans for a so-called “dementia tax” (which would use the homes of deceased dementia sufferers to subsidise the care they received whilst alive).

    Why the Conservatives didn’t think to include us in their vision for the country is beyond me, but it’s nothing short of an astonishing. This is all the more galling when you consider that UKIP, of all parties, managed to remember us when they controversially released their manifesto yesterday, ahead of the resumption of campaigning by the other parties. Granted, they only mentioned the LGBT+ community in a pledge to “test the social attitudes of migration applicants” towards women and gay people.

    Whilst this sounds nice on the surface – nobody wants a bunch of raging homophobes coming into the country – many on social media have pointed out that a lot of UKIP’s own members wouldn’t pass this test. In the last week alone it was revealed that Iain Kealey, the UKIP candidate for Bristol South, once compared gay people marching against Islamophobia as “Jews for Hitler,” whilst their candidate in Witney has a penchant for referring to our community as the “gaystapo” and allegedly has ties to those who practice gay conversion therapy. Oh, and he’d like to repeal gay marriage.

    UKIP wasn’t the only party with a gay cure controversy though. The conservative candidate in Brighton and Hove, Kirsty Adams, is reported to have links to a church that believes LGBT people are possessed by demons, which they then try to cast out. Ms Adams, who is standing against openly gay incumbent Labour candidate Peter Kyle, refused to say she doesn’t believe in the practice of casting out demons, but did say she has “never been homophobic” and supported equal marriage. “I am committed to all forms of equality,” she said in a statement.

    Never mind casting out demons, though. Some trans people won’t even be able to cast a vote. The deadline to register to vote was Monday night, but as Pink News reported, several trans people were having issues registering after they legally changed their names or had protected National Insurance numbers (which some trans people opt for so their gender identity is less likely to be revealed).

    If they do manage to vote and live north of the border, Kezia Dugdale – the out leader of Scottish Labour – has a novel suggestion for how they should vote, and it isn’t for her party. Ms Dugdale came under fire from many on the left when she seemingly encouraged some constituencies to vote Conservative in an effort to defeat the Scottish National Party. “The reality is the vast majority of seats across Scotland, it’s only the Labour party that can beat the SNP,” she told Sky News, before adding “there are a few differences in the Borders and the Highlands where the Tories might be better placed…” Suggesting people vote for your opponents is a novel way to win seats, but takes all sorts, I suppose.

    Meanwhile, another out lesbian north of the border – the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson – has made the exact same pitch. That is, she’s asking Labour voters to support the Tories to oust the SNP. Of course, the SNP holds all but one of the constituencies in Scotland, so they’re unlikely to be completely wiped out. But Davidson’s Scottish Tories are doing remarkably well, currently polling in second place – their best showing in decades. They look poised to pick up at least one or two Scottish constituencies.

    Meanwhile, back in England, the Liberal Democrats faced a backlash from their own members for an allegedly transphobic poster. “Vote her, get him,” says an image depicting Nigel Farage’s face imposed upon Theresa May’s body. According to the Telegraph, the chair of LGBT Lib Dems, Jennie Rigg, tweeted that the sign is “bordering on transphobia” and that the press team was “making her life difficult.” This is on top of the brouhaha that erupted earlier in the campaign when Lib Dem leader Tim Farron took weeks to publicly say that no, gay sex is not a sin. Judge for yourselves whether the image is transphobic:

    In yet another bit of bad news for the Lib Dems, former Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes – who is openly bisexual – was reported to the police by his Labour opponent, the incumbent MP Neil Coyle who defeated Mr Hughes in their Bermondsey constituency in 2015. In leaflets which allegedly looked like newspapers, Mr Hughes claimed Mr Coyle was being investigated for abusing members of his party’s staff, which Mr Coyle categorically denies.

    Despite his sexual orientation, Mr Hughes has a spotty history when it comes to LGBT+ rights. He led a notoriously homophobic campaign against gay rights activist Peter Tatchell to win his constituency in 1983. More recently, he refused to vote for same-sex marriage, instead abstaining from the vote whilst outlining his opposition to same-sex marriage in a 2013 blog for the Liberal Democrat Voice. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

    On that note, I’m off to make some enemies of my own by knocking back a few pints and challenging my local bartender to an ABBA sing-off. Blame the demon homosexuals in me, I guess. Until then, stay strong and stay fabulous.

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.